List of software licenses |
In Computing, software that is copyrighted and licensed under a software license is done so principally under two general licensing schemes, open source and closed source. Within these schemes are further classifications.
Not all software is licensed, or even copyrighted, and this article is thus not an exhaustive list of the terms under which software is available. Software may be published without an accompanying license, as License-Free Software, in which case it remains copyrighted, its distribution is subject to ordinary copyright law, and its sale is subject to ordinary sales law. Software may also be released to the public domain, in which case it is not copyrighted and the notion of a copyright License simply does not apply at all (although the other parts of a software licence, including Software license#Product_liability, will still apply to the sale of such software).
= Open source licenses =
Open source licenses are commonly grouped under free software , defined by the GNU organization, and other general open source licenses which may or may not be considered free . The Open Source Initiative generally determines whether licenses are considered open or not.
= Free software licenses =
== GPL compatible ==
The GNU General Public License is a popular license, with offerings including Linux, that it is useful to know if the license chosen is compatible with it. Knowing compatibility is important if a developer wants to avail his or herself of the wide GPL software commons .
== GPL incompatible ==
The GPL has certain special requirements that make code under licenses incompatible (that is, cannot be consequently licensed under) the GPL.
= Closed source=
==Free Licensed Closed Source==
==Pay Licensed Viewable Source==
==Pay Licensed Closed Source==
= External links =
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